Chapter 04 - Classification and Pay

In keeping with the American Samoa Code Annotated, the director shall develop and maintain a territory-wide classification and pay system based on objective, consistent, and timely classification of all positions within the Executive and Judicial Branches, of ASG and the legislative reference bureau, and shall apply reasonable and consistent assignment of positions to pay grades so as to compensate employees in equitable relationship to each other and to contribute to the attraction and retention of public employees. The system so established or any portion thereof may be extended to noncivil service positions as required by law or for the good of the service.

(a) Each agency shall maintain current position descriptions covering each career service and excepted position authorized to the agency. Each supervisor is responsible for reviewing the descriptions once each year for accuracy.

(b) When duties of positions change, the supervisor must prepare a new position description to reflect the change.

The classification and compensation plan of the territory shall provide for three separate segments:

(a) The educational schedule, which applies to the department of education/community college classification and compensation plan for teachers, counselors and principals, which is based on "equal pay for equal qualifications".

(b) The general schedule (GS), which applies to the balance of the "white collar" positions and which is based on "equal pay for substantially equal work".

(c) The wage grade schedule (WG), which applies to all "blue collar" jobs and which is also based on "equal pay for substantially equal work".

The director shall develop and maintain a position classification system which shall provide for the placement of each position into an appropriate class. This includes:

(1) the establishment of written class specifications which describe each of the various classes within the classification plan in terms of the nature, variety, and level of duties and responsibilities, and the minimum qualifications required to perform adequately;

(2) the establishment, revision, or abolition of classes in order to maintain the plan on a current basis;

(3) the establishment of official class titles;

(4) the changing of any position from one class to another class whenever warranted by significant change in position duties and responsibilities or class definition, or to correct an error;

(5) the auditing of positions in order to ascertain that current positions are correctly classified.

(a) The effective date of an initial classification action shall be the date action is officially taken by the office of manpower resources to classify the position.

(b) The effective date of any subsequent classification action shall be the beginning of the pay period immediately following the date of notice of action, except that the date may be adjusted by the director in the event an incumbent fails to meet the qualification of the class, for budgetary reasons, or for other good cause.

(c) The effective date of a classification action when a classification and/or compensation survey is initiated by the director shall be the date action is officially taken, or such other date as the director deems practicable.

An administrative review may be requested by an employee or his designated representative or by the department head within 20 days after the effective date of the classification or reclassification action.

(a) The request for administrative review must be in writing and shall contain the specific reason(s) for disagreement with the classification action of the director, and shall state the action requested and the reason the requested action is deemed more appropriate.

(b) A request for administrative review must

be received no later than 10 days of the date the notice of classification is sent to the department.

(c) The director shall take appropriate action to review the classification and shall notify the department of the final decision.

(1) All initial appointments shall be made at the first step of the appropriate pay range of each of the 3 salary schedules except that, in the event that recruitment of an employee is not practicable at the first step, the director may, after appropriate notice and advertising, recruit at any step within the pay range which will attract qualified candidates.

(2) Requests for payment above the minimum may be made by agency heads prior to or at the time of appointment but in any event must be made no later than 60 days after the appointment date. Requests received after date of appointment, if granted, will not be granted retroactively.

(b) Reassignment. An employee who is reassigned shall receive the same rate of compensation as he presently receives, except that in case of a reassignment from 1 salary schedule to another salary schedule, the pay rules governing initial appointment shall apply.

(c) Reinstatement.

(1) When an employee is reinstated within a year of his separation from government service, he may be paid at any rate within the pay range which does not exceed his highest previous rate of pay, provided that where such rate falls between 2 steps of the grade to which reinstated, he may be paid at the higher step.

(2) The rules governing initial appointment shall apply only when an employee eligible for reinstatement has been separated for at least 1 year from government service.

(d) Returning Veteran. An employee who meets the requirements for reemployment as specified in the Veteran's Preference Act of 1944, as amended, and who is reemployed in his former position, shall have his rate of pay set at the step he would have received had his service with the government continued. If reemployed in a different position, the pay rule governing initial appointment shall apply.

(a) Every employee is entitled to an annual step-increment increase at the beginning of the pay period immediately following his service year preceding such increase.

(b) A service year is 52 weeks of continuous service in present grade and step, which shall include credit for leave without pay:

(1) To pursue a course of instruction approved by the director which is related to the employee's area of work;

(2) To recuperate from an injury for which workers' compensation weekly payments are made;

(3) for military service when so provided by territorial or federal law; and

(4) For any other authorized purpose but for no more than 10 workdays.

(c) The compensation of an employee denied an increment because of substandard performance in his job in the service year preceding may subsequently be increased as of the date his performance has been brought up to standard and has so continued for a 3-month period. His increment anniversary date will be adjusted accordingly.

(d) Ninety days prior to each employee's step-increment due date, a notice will be sent to the employee, his department head, and immediate supervisor. This notice will call for the submission of an annual employee performance evaluation, which must be completed and returned to the office of manpower resources.

(1) If the performance evaluation is satisfactory or better, the employee will receive a step-increment.

(2) If the performance evaluation is unsatisfactory, a written justification on same must be submitted to manpower resources 60 days prior to the date the increment is due. If the justification is approved, the computer center will be notified not to effect the increment.

(3) If no performance evaluation is received, no increment will be processed.

(e) When the date of promotion and the periodic step-increment date coincide the, periodic increment shall be made prior to the promotional increase.

(a) Applicability. This section applies to all career service employees and certain contract employees whose contracts permit overtime or compensatory time, with the following exceptions:

(1) Department of education and community college;

(2) Employees in second or third jobs.

(b) General Provisions.

(1) Every employee is entitled to receive cash payor time off in lieu of cash for overtime work, as provided in this section.

(2) Each workweek shall stand alone; "averaging" of hours over 2 or more weeks is not pennitted. This paragraph does not apply to firefighters.

(3) Workweeks shall be 40 hours in a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hburs, in 7 consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Once the beginning time of any employee's workweek is established, it shall remain fixed until changed. A change intended or designed to evade the overtime requirement is prohibited.

(4) Overtime com pensation po licies shall not be waived by any agreement between a government supervisor and an employee.

(c) Cash Pay for Overtime. Employees in grades GS I-II and WB 1-16 are eligible to be compensated in cash for overtime at the rate of I Y2 times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 8 per day or 40 per week. Firefighters shall receive overtime cash pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. The agency director may authorize compensatory leave in lieu of cash, upon mutual agreement with the employee. This leave will be authorized at the rate of 1½ hours of leave per overtime hour worked.

(d) Higher Grades. Employees in grades GS 12 and WB 17 or above, or whose grade is XX, are not eligible for cash pay for overtime work. They may be compensated for work beyond 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week on an hour-for-hour basis.

(e) Hours Worked. "Hours worked", in general, includes all the time an employee is required to be on duty or on the government premises or at a prescribed workplace and all time during which he is "suffered or permitted to work".

(f) Training and Meetings. Attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs, and similar activities will not be counted as hours worked beyond the scheduled workday or workweek. If attendance is outside the employee's regular working hours and is required by the agency director, overtime or compensatory time may be awarded if otherwise applicable.

(g) Semiannual Payoff. Compensatory time earned should be taken within 60 days of the pay period in which it was earned. Departments are responsible for monitoring the accumulation of compensatory time. Any balance of compensatory time in excess of 120 hours will be paid to the employee at his regular time rate during the last pay period of June and December of each year.

(h) Separation. Employees leaving ASG employment shall be compensated in cash for accumulated, documented overtime by the agency from which separated.

(1) In the event of death of an employee, his accumulated overtime shall be paid to appropriate persons provided by this title.

(2) If a function or program, together with assigned employees, is transferred from one to another agency, all accumulated overtime shall also be transferred.

(i) Records. Each agency is responsible for keeping appropriate records of hours worked and leave earned, used, accrued, etc. of its employees.

(j) Student Workers. Whenever it is necessary to employ student workers as learners at wages lower than the minimum wage to prevent curtailment of opportunities for employment in a specified institution, such as a community college or whenever a "student learner" is employed at wages lower than the minimum, an application for a special certificate authorizing the employment of such student workers as learners at subminimum wage rates may be filed through the office of manpower resources to the U.S. Department of Labor. Without such certificate the minimum wage must be paid.

(a) It is recognized that some positions at times involved intrinsically hazardous working conditions, justifying "hazard pay". "Hazard pay" is pay additional to the normal hourly pay for the position, payable to employees while actually engaged in the hazardous activities. Upon the recommendation of a department head, the director may grant hazard pay differentials to employees who are temporarily exposed to unusually hazardous working conditions and where the following conditions are met:

(1) The exposure of unusually hazardous working conditions is temporary;

(2) Divers diving in depths of more than 39 feet but not exceeding 59 feet, $3 per hour of diving time;

(3) Divers diving at depths of more than 59 feet, $5 per hour of diving time;

(4) Utility linemen working on utility poles 45 feet high or higher, $0.50 per hour of time on such poles;

(5) Utility linemen working "hot" lines, regardless of height, $0.75 per hour of time on "hot" lines;

(6) Utility linemen are entitled to receive pay for both high-pole and "hot"-line work for each hour of work under such conditions;

(7) All personnel assigned to duty at sea outside the harbor entrance, $0.15 per hour of time of duty at sea outside the harbor entrance;

(8) Employees required to work in underground sewers, clean water storage tanks, reservoirs, climb or scale heights in excess of 20 feet, install or repair mains. valves, etc. while wet from water other than natural causes, $0.50 per hour of time engaged in such activities;

(a) Each department which has responsibilities requiring work around the clock will set up 3 shifts; the normal morning to afternoon is known as the "day shift"; the shift beginning in the afternoon into the evening is known as the "swing shift"; and the late night to morning shift being known as the "graveyard shift".

(b) Employees regularly scheduled to the "swing shift" receive an additional $0.15 per hour for each hour of work on that shift.

(c) Employees regularly scheduled to the "graveyard shift" receive an additional $0.25 per hour for each hour worked on that shift.

(a) Any government employee whose permanent duty station is outside of and who is

assigned temporarily for a determinable period of time in excess of 30 days to duties in either the Manu'a Islands or Swains Island will receive a housing/subsistence allowance of $ 200 per month if government housing is not available, or $100 per month if government housing is available, payable on a daily pro rata basis.

(b) Any government employee whose permanent duty station is outside of and who is assigned temporarily for a determinable period of time in excess of 30 days to duties in the Islands of Tutuila and Aunu'u will receive a housing/subsistence allowance of $150 per month if government housing is not available, or $75 per month if government housing is available, payable on a daily pro rata basis.